The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Open cabin vehicles such as golf cars, personal transportation vehicles, boats, etc., often include a protective top mounted over the passenger cabin or seating area by top support struts. Such protective tops generally provide protection to passengers of the vehicle from such things as sun and rain.
Typically, such tops comprise a hard plastic, fiberglass, resin or composite roof panel mounted over the passenger cabin or seating area by the top support struts. Additionally, in various implementations such roof panels include a metal strip or band covering a peripheral edge of the roof panel to aesthetically finish the peripheral edge, and in various instances, to provide mounting points for mounting the panel to the uprights, and/or provide one or more fastening means for fastening a vehicle accessory, such as side curtains or side panels, to the roof panel. In order to provide protection to passengers of the vehicle, such roof panels typically have a footprint large enough to cover a substantial part of the vehicle, for example, a footprint that is larger than the passenger cabin, e.g., 5′×4′×1′.
Accordingly, to ship such roof panels a shipping package/box large enough to enclose the roof panel is required. Such large packages/boxes are difficult to ship reliably and without damage to the roof panel, e.g., bending, breaking, cracking or crushing the roof panel, thereby creating a situation where a second roof panel must be shipped. Such duplicative shipping creates additional cost to the manufacture and time delays to the recipient. Furthermore, such roof panels are often fabricated by thermoforming plastic, fiberglass, resin or a composite. Because the process of thermoforming is a low temperature heating and shaping process, the resultant panels and known to occasionally deform from exposure to the heat of the sun, thereby requiring replacement.